Posted on 18th March 2016
In the first practice session in Melbourne, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets ahead of the Red Bull drivers of Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo after the first practice session of 2016 was disrupted by intermittent showers meaning drivers were not able to complete a significant amount of mileage on the dry tyres.
But the majority of the field completed their initial installation laps on the intermediate tyres as they tip-toed around the slippy circuit. During FP1, we saw spots of rain hit the session with made Max Verstappen spin and also Daniel Ricciardo at the end of the session spinning after losing the rear end of his Red Bull due to driver error.
But it was Lewis Hamilton who was fastest with a lap time of 1.29.725 ahead of Daniil Kvyat in second place who was 0.421 seconds behind him and ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in third place who was 1.150 seconds behind Hamilton.
Nico Hulkenberg finished the session in fourth place ahead of Max Verstappen in fifth place, Nico Rosberg in sixth place, Fernando Alonso in seventh place, Jenson Button in eighth place and Sergio Perez in ninth place and Kevin Magnussen who rounded off the top ten finishers.
two Williams drivers of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa in eleventh and twelfth places, Felipe Nasr in thirteenth place, Jolyon Palmer in fourteenth place and Marcus Ericsson in fifteenth place.
As we head into the latter stages of the grid, rookie Pascal Wehrlein ended the session in sixteenth place ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in seventeenth place, Esteban Gutierrez in eighteenth place, Rio Haryanto in ninteenth place, Romain Grosjean in twenieth place,
Sebastian Vettel in twenty-first place and Carlos Sainz Jr in twenty-second place
The classification of FP1 for the Australian GP is as follows:-
1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1.29.725
2. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull Renault, 0.421s
3. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-Renault, 1.150s
4. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 1.600s0
5. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1.995s
6. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 2.089s
7. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 3.335s
8. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 3.404s
9. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 3.645s
10. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, 4.335s
11. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 4.825s
12. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 4.954s
13. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 5.071s
14. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 5.752s
15. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 8.231s
16. Pascal Wehrlein, MRT Racing, 10.676s
17. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 11.029s
18. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas Ferrari, 12.055s
19. Rio Haryanto, MRT Racing, 13.647s
20. Romain Grosjean, Haas Ferrari, 13.718s
21. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, No Time
22. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, No Time
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
